Now Published — World Teleport Association's Satellite Operator Benchmarks 2017...

The World Teleport Association (WTA) has published their Satellite Operator Benchmarks 2017, a new research report.

This is the seventh report in WTA's annual Satellite Operator Benchmarks series, for which FutureSource provides the field research. Key findings from the report include:

Overall, teleport operators rated the commercial performance of satellite operators 9% better than the previous year — part of a multi-year trend promoted by the Benchmark surveys.

Teleport operators rated the operational performance of satellite operators 11 percent better in 2017 compared with the previous year — also a multi-year trend. Operators received a “strong” rating on 85 percent of factors.

Satellite operators vary in how much they compete directly with teleport operators for managed services business. Seventy percent of respondents reported direct competition from Intelsat and 65% from SES, while only 25 percent reported competition from Gazprom and 14 percent from Arabsat.

Overall, teleport operators perceived less competitive threat from satellite operators in 2017 than in 2016. The perceived fairness of that competition, however, was considered worse (less fair) for most operators in 2017 than in 2016.

With the Satellite Operator Benchmarks series, WTA examines the crucial relationship between teleport operators and satellite operators. WTA seeks to keep that relationship healthy and strong by informing teleport operators about how their peers view the principal satellite operators while at the same time providing objective feedback to those operators from an important customer group. By objectively tracking, rating and comparing the operational and commercial performance of satellite operators, as experienced by teleport operators, WTA seeks to strengthen the industry by driving self-improvement across all companies.

“All markets contain tensions,” said WTA executive director and report author Robert Bell, “between companies that sometimes collaborate, sometimes buy from each other or sell to each other, and sometimes compete. On average, teleport operators are spending 41% of their revenues on satellite capacity that they integrate into managed services, but the reality is that their satellite vendors also offer managed services. We believe that our annual report has made a substantial contribution to keeping competition healthy for the industry as a whole.”